A/HRC/41/37
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
10 April 2019
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Forty-first session
24 June–12 July 2019
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Right to education: the implementation of the right to
education and Sustainable Development Goal 4 in the context
of the growth of private actors in education
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education*
Summary
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of
the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, prepared pursuant to Council resolutions
8/4, 35/2 and 38/9.
In the report, the Special Rapporteur examines the implementation of the right to
education and Sustainable Development Goal 4 in the context of the growth of private
actors in education.
She presents to the Human Rights Council and States Members of the United
Nations the Abidjan Principles on the human rights obligations of States to provide public
education and to regulate private involvement in education, and recommends their full
implementation.
She recalls that international human rights law requires States to provide free,
quality, public education. Depending on their nature and aims, private actors may
contribute to the realization of the right to education and offer educational alternatives, thus
enhancing, for example, respect for cultural diversity. However, the persistent
underfunding of public education and the rapid and unregulated growth in the involvement
of private, in particular commercial, actors in education, threaten the implementation of the
right to education for all and Sustainable Development Goal 4.
The report contains observations and recommendations on the obligation of States to
fund and provide public education and provides some concrete suggestions and solutions. It
draws on the Abidjan Principles, in particular with regard to the obligation to regulate
private actors involved in education, public-private partnerships and the role of donors and
civil society.
* The annex is reproduced as received in the language of submission only.
GE.19-06064(E)